thanks for the flowers

my gorgeous flowers

I received the most beautiful flowers yesterday for my birthday. I don't get flowers very often so it was a nice surprise. They look great on the coffee table and they smell great too. Thanks mom and dad Swenson!

Sarah's 26th birthday

Well, I turned 26 on Saturday. It was a pretty low key day, but I really did have a great birthday. I woke up to lots of gifts all over the house. Mike got me a Gravis yoga bag, a Gravis purse, a balloon, cherry pie and a Wee Little Garden Gnome - he's really tiny. I'm really excited to use some of my birthday money to start taking yoga classes here in Seattle. And I have my cool, new yoga bag to carry all my gear in.


note Nollie for scale of my Wee Little Garden Gnome

We spent the day doing whatever I wanted. We went out to breakfast at Dish, took Nollie to the dog park, went to Fremont (the neighborhood next to ours) for Cold Stone ice cream and coffee and to browse the shops, and then went to dinner at Madador here in Ballard. Their only downside was we had to wait an hour and a half to get a table. Mike thought it was a little too trendy. I thought the food was delicious.

thanks for the cheese

I got a great surprise in the mail today from my parents - Wisconsin cheese! I was having a difficult time out here not have the vast selection of good cheese that we have in Wisconsin. My mom asked me if there was anything I wanted sent to me and I said cheese. My parents followed through and sent me 5 different kinds of cheese, including 2 bags of cheese curds from the cheese factory up by their cabin in Wautoma, WI. They even squeaked when I ate them. And since Mike doesn't like cheese, I get to eat it all myself. It was the best surprise! Thanks mom and dad!

Wednesday night we went to the Society of Forensic Toxicologists night out. It may seem like a weird thing to do, but this is how it happened. My bosses from my job in Madison, Pat and Laura, were here in Seattle for a Acadamy of Forensic Sciences conference. At this conference there are toxicologists, pathologists, ballistics specialists, etc. All the toxicologists got together one night for a social outing and that is what Mike and I went to. It was at Gordon Beirsh downtown and there was free pizza and beer. It was really fun to see someone I know from home out here. We were introduced to a lot of people, some of whom I may be working with some day. I had an interview with the Washington State Patrol's toxicology lab yesterday and I think it went really well. I'm very excited and optimistic. I should know in a week or two if I got the job. Keep your fingers crossed!

SURPRISE!

Steve & Gretchen

This past Saturday was Steve's 28th birthday. His friends threw him an awesome surprise party. He had no clue! It was great! We weren't really sure if it would actually happen. Gretchen and Steve went to dinner close to the bar he wanted to celebrate in, so the hard part was getting him back to his house where we were all waiting with balloons and silly string. Gretchen's plan of forgetting her cell phone worked and Steve was bombarded! I think he has some great friends and had a great birthday.

Happy Valentine's Day

cupcakes from Cupcake Royale

Our first Valentine's Day as a married couple and our first Valentine's Day in Seattle was a success. We went out for a nice dinner at The Hi-Life - aka where Topher works. The food was very good and I love that it has an open kitchen so you can watch Topher make your french onion soup. Next time we eat there I want to sit at the counter so we can bother him while he works. We then went to Sonic Boom where we bought some CDs. Next, Cupcake Royale for coffee and cupcakes. We ended out the night at home drinking a bottle of wine from our honeymoon, watching the Olympics, and listening to our new CDs. The only bad part of the day was that Nollie was afraid of the heart-shaped balloon I gave Mike. She wouldn't come downstairs while it was in the living room - too cute!

Greetings from Seattle!

We rolled into the city about a week ago and so much has been happening since then. Our first order of business was to find a place to live since we were homeless and staying at Steve's house. I know everyone was nervous about us moving out here with nowhere to live, but the house hunt went surprisingly fast. We ended up renting the first house we looked at. It's in Ballard (about 10 blocks from Steve's house) and in a very nice neighborhood. The house itself is a small cottage built on the back of the lot - there is just a front yard. The yard is huge with lots of big trees and shrubs - basically we can't see the road from inside the house. Nollie loves the yard and runs around like a wild woman everytime we let her out.




front of our house


view of the front yard from our porch


view of the house from the road

We've also had some time to explore the Ballard neighborhood with Steve. My favorite coffee shop is Cupcake Royale. We have also frequented the Tin Hat - the Paradise of Seattle - a couple of times. They don't have fried cheese curds, but they do have good nachos and PBR on tap. We love Taco del Mar too.

It hasn't all been fun and games. We spent the good part of Tuesday setting things up here - new driver's licenses, new license plates, new bank account, library cards (so I can get on the internet), etc. Mike started work yesterday at Hart Crowser so I've been on my own finishing up the unpacking and whatever else needs to be done to settle in. So far they have him working hard!